Last Updated on January 29, 2025
Chanson Française visits Wilton’s Music Hall
4.0 out of 5.0 starsThe iconic French singer, Edith Piaf, never performed in the United Kingdom. However, if she had, Wilton’s Music Hall would have been a fitting venue. Within these peeling walls, Scottish singer Christine Bovill channels the ego of The Little Sparrow to great effect.
Bovill’s show, which is part spoken, part sung, interweaves her own musical history with the life of Edith Piaf. Bovill’s lifelong love of Chanson Réaliste was sparked when as a Glaswegian teenager, she first heard Piaf’s Je Ne Regrette Rien. Bovill, with her charming anecdotes, gives an accomplished delivery of Piaf’s anthems without resorting to impersonation. Employing Piaf’s trademark physical gestures, such as hands on hips, is present but not overdone. The stage, mostly cast in red or French Tricolore light against Wilton’s textured plaster walls, is adorned only with a side table displaying a vase of roses. Accompaniment comes from animated pianist Michael Roulston (Fascinating Aida), himself a joy to watch.
Piaf Revisited is a reinvention of a show that has toured globally in various guises since Bovill’s acclaimed success at The Edinburgh Fringe in 2012. Whilst Chanson Française is her first love, Bovill is a versatile singer-songwriter recording her own contemporary folk material. Her Apple Music profile compares her to Eddie Reader, although vocally, she reminded me more of Camille O’Sullivan and Ute Lemper.
With lengthy experience delivering Piaf’s material, it’s a given that Bovill can belt out numbers like Milord and L’Accordéoniste in a manner befitting her idol. These are far more convincing renditions than, say, Elaine Paige (not a French speaker), who relied on phonetic memory for Pam Gem’s Piaf stage show. The audience, clearly many Piaf fans amongst them, give many appreciative murmurs and gasps. With Celine Dion’s Olympic opening ceremony rendition of Hymne à l’Amour fresh in the collective memory, it’s a high bar over which Bovill deftly vaults.
Throughout, songs are sung in French or English or a mix of the two. Often after Bovill’s pre-ambles explaining the story behind the song, to get a verse or two in English was helpful, even when familiar with the French lyrics. However, it was a mild disappointment that Je Ne Regrette Rien was sung partly in French, then switched midway to English. It’s such a short song, the impact was spoiled by not sticking with one single language. But that’s a personal gripe. Piaf herself sang in English to broaden her appeal, notably to achieve success in the United States, so it’s not inappropriate that Bovill sings partly in translation.
It was apt that we were near Whitechapel, referenced in the opening lines of one of Piaf’s most popular songs, “C’est à Hambourg”, and included on the setlist here. With a shared local dockside legacy of local sailors and prostitutes, it’s hard to think of a more apposite location to reprise Piaf in London. Bovill’s spine-tingling rendition of La Vie En Rose was quintessentially Piaf. I was immediately struck by how pale, in comparison, other – no matter how popular – interpretations by Zaz or Grace Jones have been.
Although only at Wilton’s for a few nights, Piaf Revisited will be popping up around the country throughout 2025. Check Christinebovill.com for live dates and tickets to Piaf Revisited and her other shows. Do go, you’ll have no regrets.
Piaf Revisited, 21-25 Jan 2025
Wilton’s Music Hall
1 Graces Alley
London E1 8JB
4 stars
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